Lahainaluna’s Division II state football championship victory over Konawaena last November was definitely one for the record books.

And it is time to assure that the longest football game in our state’s history stays there.

The Lunas’ 75-69, seven-overtime triumph was a classic, and high school officials now have the opportunity to help make sure it remains one unsurpassed for length when the Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association convenes three days of annual meetings starting Monday at Waikoloa.

The ADs have before them a reasoned proposal from the public school Oahu Interscholastic Association that would give local high schools an overtime system modeled after that of the NCAA.

The NCAA version, in use in its current form since 1997, has been demonstrated to be the best on any level — pro, college etc. — and would go a long way to all but guaranteeing that nobody has to huff and puff through seven overtimes anymore.

As exciting as the game was, the considerable potential for injury in such an exhaustive effort comes with odds that are best left unchallenged again.

If 67 minutes of overtime play is something deemed best avoided by the NFL and colleges, then high schools should do all they can to steer clear.

By requiring teams to attempt 2-point conversions and disdain the option of an extra-point try after a touchdown beginning with a third overtime — as the NCAA format does — the chances of being sent to five, six or seven overtimes drop significantly.

NCAA statistics tell us the extra-point kick has been converted at least 92 percent of the time on its level since 1980. Meanwhile, in the past 10 years, 2-point conversions have been successful just 40.5 percent of the time.

If the intention here is also to play multiple championship games at the same site on the same night to give all the competing teams the opportunity to experience the big-time game atmosphere — as HHSAA director Chris Chun has said he favors — then this is definitely the way to go.

After all, nobody should have their championship game decided at 1:04 a.m., the final act in a 12-hour day of championships.

Most levels of football accepted ties — blissfully or otherwise — until 1971, when the so-called “Kansas Plan” was put in the books by the Kansas High School Athletic Association.

The “Kansas Plan” — or a variation of it — has been employed well beyond the borders of the Sunflower State. It mandates starting overtime play at an opponent’s 10-yard line with four opportunities to score. The format has been a suggested overtime solution in the national federation rule book.

The NCAA, where kicking was more a part of the game, opted to spot the ball at the 25-yard line for its overtime and assure each team at least one shot when it rolled out its overtime answer in 1996. A year later it added the requirement of going for two points beginning with the third overtime period.

The NFL, which began its overtime play in 1974 and modified it in 2010, can favor the team that wins the coin flip since it is a “sudden-death” situation with no guarantee the other team will even get a shot.

You could make the case that the decisive call of Super Bowl LI for New England was taking “heads” in the overtime coin flip that kept the league’s highest scoring team at the time, Atlanta, off the field.

Here’s hoping the 2018 HHSAA championship games are full of drama, just not requiring seven overtimes worth.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.